Why would a TMC no-bid on your corporate travel RFP?

There are times when a TMC may choose not to participate in a tender.

The RFP process for corporate travel management is often only seen from the point of view of a business assessing and deciding on which TMC will best align with their company and suit their programme requirements. However, from the TMC’s perspective, it is equally important to be confident that the solutions, products and services it offers are a good fit for a prospective customer.

This is one of the reasons why it is extremely important to provide as much information as possible to potential TMCs. Without sufficient data, they will be unable to accurately assess the suitability of the partnership.

Here's how sales teams use CRM tools - like Salesforce - to decide whether to bid or walk away:

As a TMC we naturally want to win as many new clients as we can. Yet, in common with other TMCs, we’ve increasingly ‘no bid’ more business over the past three years.

One big reason for this trend is the increasing use of sales management platforms. Technology like Salesforce helps sales teams improve revenues by focusing on maximising the conversion rate of bids, not simply bidding as often as possible.

Conversion rate is improved by better targeting of the business we think we have a great solution for and can realistically win. We have developed a scoring mechanism for assessing the overall relationship prior to any official tender process starting.

Once we receive the RFP, we then use a second tool to request input from all the markets involved and match it with historical information so we can make an educated decision on whether to bid or not. Factors which could push up the score include:

• A high level of engagement with the client before the RFP stage
• Geographical coverage
• Service requirements
• A well-constructed, focused RFP